Description: In a well-designed enterprise risk management (ERM) program, the firm integrates risk management into the strategic planning process, addressing strategic risk, financial risk, operational risk and hazard risk under a single overarching process. This is particularly important to large financial firms, such as property and casualty (P&C) insurers, which face a diverse set of risks. In contrast to previous studies that document a significant product line and geographic diversification discount relative to more focused competitors, our analysis suggests that firms with effective ERM programs exhibit a performance premium. Using the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) ERM ratings from 2006 to 2012, we find that product line diversification has a significant positive effect on value for more diversified firms with well-implemented ERM programs, as compared to those with weak ERM.

Description: When a pension plan surplus reaches a high level, distributing some of it may be desirable. This article proposes a percentile-based criterion for how much to give. From Actuarial Research Clearing House, Volume 2000,Vol.1.

Description: Public policy makers acknowledge that there exist significant tax incentives for the use of Registered/Qualified Pension Plans and RRSP's/lRA's. This is the abstract of a paper that first analyzes these tax advantages as to the component source, i.e., how much of the advantage can be attributed to the tax deductibility of contributions and how much is because of the non-taxation of the investment income until taken. The paper then attempts to determine and illustrate whether or not these elements of tax assistance should be viewed as tax deferral or tax waiver. The analysis shows that any tax advantages associated with the deductibility of contributions is only tax deferral. However, the paper proves that there is a permanent loss to the taxpayers associated with the non-taxation of earned investment income until taken which should be viewed as a tax subsidy or tax waiver. The paper ends with a short discussion of the public policy issues raised by these findings. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, Vol. 1.

Description: This is the Executive Summary of the results of a study, sponsored by the Society of Actuaries and the Actuarial Foundation, which assesses the extent to which retirement planning software programs help users understand post-retirement risks.

Description: The abstract for the paper The Lee-Carter Model for Forecasting Mortality Revisited.

Description: This is Part 2 of a summary of the new, upcoming Social Insurance Law in China. Part 1 was presented in the July 2011 issue of 'In the Public Interest.'

Description: This abstract describes a paper that models a firm value by a jump-diffusion process and derives an explicit formula for the default probability.

Description: This abstract describes a paper that discusses the definition of forward rates in general and gives a generally valid definition of forward rates, and continues the work of Norberg (Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 2010, 47(2), 105-112), who made the first attempt to define general forward transition rates.

Description: This abstract describes a paper that proposes a Bayesian hierarchical model to analyze intercompany claim triangles.

Description: This abstract describes a paper that measures the magnitude of the systematic bias, found when using the Lee-Carter model for mortality prediction, using the bootstrap method and also provides suggestions on how to correct the bias.